Topps Is Not

The New York Times article on Topps meat makes me want to shout, “Who is in charge and who really cares about what the public eats?” While the Agriculture Department is supposed to oversee and set guidelines for the meat industry and do safety checks on packing plants it becomes apparent that the inspection process at Topps was shoddy at best.

It isn’t much better around the country. According to this article meat packers buy their meat locally and overseas. Meat bought overseas doesn’t have to be tested for E.coli because the bactirium isn’t as prevelant. However, American meat must be tested. But, when a company fails to adequately test its product and when they mix the two products together then disaster is waiting to happen and it has.

Topps has gone out of business. A few years back Topps was bought by Strategic Investments & Holdings, a diversified private equity firm. After being bought out, employees complained of mounting stress to produce more and more. Private equity firms want to make money. Topps became well worn, well used, but not much cared for in the way of cleanliness and safety. One more reason to find out where your food is produced. If possible don’t go for the mass produced stuff. It just isn’t good for you.

Read the article Red Flags

 

Friday’s Best and Worst

Today’s Best site is AGF or better known as the American Grassfed Association. While this site had a few proper names that were not capitalized, I still found lots of good information on grassfed beef and other livestock. When I looked for North Carolina farms that sell grassfed meat I found these three: Appletree Angus Farm Beef, Blue Mountain Bison Bison, Terrell TT Ranch Beef. Grassfed is healthier and much more humane

Today’s Worst site is Premarin. While many women depend on this drug, they might find it revolting to know that their estrogen is coming from mares who are kept pregnant, have to stand in pee lines, and are confined to tiny stalls where that cannot move for the duration of their lives. The Premarin site gives lots of information about how estrogen works and also its side effects, but I couldn’t find any information on how it is made and what it is made of. I felt this site was rather deceptive. On the other hand, I found this site: MetroPets , which gave me lots of information on the treatment of Premarin mares.

 

Bad Burger

Well it has happened again, but this time it is one of the biggest recalls of ground meat in the history of the United States. 21.7 million pounds of burger, contaminated with E.coli, has been found unfit for human consumption. The Topps Food Company spokesman tells us, “because the products may have been produced up to a year ago, many of them have already been safely consumed.” WHAT! I’m sorry, but what is your definition of safe? Did little Johnny have a bad case of diarrhea after eating burgers one night and did sister vomit and have flu-like symptoms after a meat loaf dinner?

Topps is being investigated. But the real issue here is where did all that nasty meat come from and how long did it sit before it was frozen? How big is too big when a company is producing your food? With 21.7 million pounds of beef coming out of one plant inspectors would have to be too numerous to count. How is the meat handled? Well, an investigation is underway, but will we ever hear the outcome? If you weren’t affected, then you probably won’t care, but if your child, mother, husband gets a dose of E. coli, they might just feel poorly for a while, or they could die. E.coli is a nasty bactirium that causes diarrhea and other serious complications.

Our country has to reshape, reform, and rethink our food supply industry. 21.7 million pounds of meat means a lot of cows were run through the savages of the slaughterhouse and now their sacrifice is for naught. But that is just the tip of the iceberg so to speak. Pilgrim’s Pride had to recall 27 million pounds of poultry in 2002. Good thing the CEO’s of Topps Food and Pilgrim’s Pride don’t live and more importantly work in China.

The warning here is to buy clean, safe food. Just because food is for the masses doesn’t mean it has to be poorly produced. With each and every recall I hope America gets a little smarter, demanding better quality for themselves and the animals that become those many millions of pounds of product.